older 16' Thermoglass w/water ballast?

Hi Guys,

I bought an old 16' thermoglass with 55hp evinrude yesterday for really cheap as a winter project and i started exploring the boat a bit. The one thing that stumped me is that even though the bilge pump area is dry, for some reason i hear water splashing inside the hull when i move the tongue of the trailer up or down. Quite a bit of water too.

Now i'm wondering, could this be a leak of some sort and that's why there is so much water under the floor? Or is this some type of ballast? I found a brass plug which drains the under floor area to the bilge area and i opened it. Immediately, this very brown but odorless water started pouring out so i started filling up some 5 gallon buckets. After i poured out 15 gallons or so, i stopped because maybe i'm doing something wrong here and this is where i need advice from experts like you.

It does appear like this is some sort of separate tank under the floor but i'm not sure if it's supposed to be dry or not. I estimate that there is probably 30-40 gallons in of water in there, maybe a bit more. Should i take it out without compromising the boats stability? The dark brown color, does that indicate something also? I'm don't want to start cutting the floor up as it's solid and i don't want to puncture if this is in fact some sort of ballast tank.

Any help and ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

The water should come out. Many of those boats had a drain plug to dry the inbetween area.

 

Awesome, thank you for the help. Drained it all now. Eight, 5 gallon buckets of water stuck in there. Probably because it was parked outside in the rain.

Thanks again,